CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c++include
moreblue
moreblue

Reputation: 332

Way of evading repetitive library headers and typedef in makefile

Backgrounds

Say I have this structure of files:

|Makefile
|build
|source
|-FunctionLinker.h
|-main.cpp
|-A.cpp
|-B.cpp
|-C.cpp

where I would like to compile using Makefile and save the resulting objective files in build folder. The contents of these files are as follows:

Makefile

CXX = g++ -std=c++11
CXXFLAGS = -c -Wall

OBJS = build/main.o build/A.o build/B.o build/C.o
all: Project
Project: $(OBJS)
    $(CXX) -o $@ $(OBJS)

build/%.o: source/%.cpp
    $(CXX) -o $@ $(CXXFLAGS) $<

main.cpp

#include <iostream>
#include <vector>
#include "FunctionLinker.h"

int main(){
    Vector ExampleVector = {1,2};
    Matrix ExampleMatrix = {{1,2},{3,4}};

    A(ExampleVector, ExampleMatrix); // which is void
    B(ExampleVector, ExampleMatrix); // which is also void
    VectorMatrix Res = C(ExampleVector, ExampleMatrix); // which returns struct

    for (int i=0; i<2; i++){
        std::cout << Res.Vector[i] << '\t'
    }
}

A.cpp (B.cpp is almost similar)

#include <iostream>
#include <vector>

typedef std::vector<double> Vector;
typedef std::vector<Vector> Matrix;

void A(Matrix& A, Vector& b){
    Some calculations...
}

C.cpp

#include <iostream>
#include <vector>

typedef std::vector<double> Vector;
typedef std::vector<Vector> Matrix;

VectorMatrix C(Matrix& A, Vector& b){
    Some calculations...
}

FunctionLinker.h

#ifndef FUNCTIONLINKER.H
#define FUNCTIONLINKER.H

#include <iostream>
#include <vector>

typedef std::vector<double> Vector;
typedef std::vector<Vector> Matrix;

struct VectorMatrix{ 
    Vector Vector;
    Matrix Matrix;
}; // I defined a struct here to allow a function to return multiple types

void A(Matrix A, Vector b);
void B(Matrix A, Vector b);
VectorMatrix C(Matrix A, Vector b);

#endif

Problems

So Makefile perfectly works, but I doubt if it is the most effective practice. Because the following codes

#include <iostream>
#include <vector>

and

typedef std::vector<double> Vector;
typedef std::vector<Vector> Matrix;

are quite redundant, so I would like to find a more "succinct" way to do the practice. Any help will be appreciated.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 165

Answers (1)

anatolyg
anatolyg

Reputation: 28251

The point of header files is that you can include them in each source file which needs some repetitive lines of code. So if you add #include "FunctionLinker.h" in all your source files, you can delete your redundant lines of code.

Please note that this has nothing to do with the makefile. The problem and solution are within your c++ code.

Upvotes: 3

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